Is there a better way to celebrate (besides good beer) than a whole bunch of new pictures? We don’t think so!

This is a update that consists of several months of travel. Instead of doing a bunch of small updates, I felt it was better to save and do everything in one big update. So here it is.

This update trip started out in March, with some local “shots”.
Starting with the new WBUR-FM antenna on the Cedar St tower in Needham.

WBUR-FM’s new Shively 6016 panel antenna.

(If you subscribe to Fybush’s North East Radio Watch, and why don’t you already?, you would’ve seen this shot before this update). We also stopped at the new site for 98.9, a translator relaying 1110 out of Salem, NH, the WGFP AM site in Webster, and the new Franklin LPFM on 102.9

W255DA on the Crown Castle tower in Windham, NH

The next month was my annual trip to Allentown, PA for the fire-matic show. I had planned on doing a bunch of brewery tours and decided to hit up a few towers “along the way”. The weather was cold, cloudy, and in some instances, rainy. So the pictures aren’t ideal, but they came out good. I did a loop that took me from Pottsville to Reading via the Ephrata site of 105.1.

WIOV’s antenna.

Way up on the perch above Reading is the big tower of 102.5 flanked with a couple of smaller translators as well.

WRFY-FM and a couple of translators south of Reading

Before leaving Allentown for another year, I stopped up to the WAEB-FM to see the new antenna install up there. And finally drove up to the antenna. What a view!

One of the more picturesque sites. WAEB-FM!

A few weeks earlier, I had gone to Hartford for other reasons, and updated several of the new AM on FM translators, and updated the 97.1 translator, which hasn’t been updated in 2003. I also got two of the newer Hartford LPFMs as well, one up on Box Mountain, and the other in the middle of a neighborhood!

WYPH-LP 102.5 on the Box Mountain tower in Vernon, CT.

This past weekend allowed for me to complete another important update, to visit the New London area in Connecticut. I got the updated tower of WBMW, along with three other translators owned by Fuller (one of which is technically in Hopkinton RI). I also got the ellusive WWBW-LP, which I had searched for in the past, but with the relicensing to 97.1, and relocation, I was able to find it.

WBMW’s antenna and tower in Ledyard97.1 tucked on this church.

And finally, I ended in the Worcester-Boston “Metrowest” area to get pictures of the new 106.1 translator for WORC, another 102.9 LPFM in Southboro, and the new 94.9 translator for 890, that allowed for a beautiful picture of the 890 array!

The 890 / 1060 array, a new angle. With the 94.9 on the far right tower.

September also got us a shot of the new WLAS-LP, the third station in the Boston 102.9 LPFM “tri-plex”

WLAS-LP on FM128

October got us up to the Hancock tower for some work, and gave us the shot of the transmitters on the 61st floor there. It also got us into the old WBZ-WCVB analog combiner room, where the new WBTS-LD transmitter now sits.

WBTS-LD’s transmitter.

As well as the funky new antenna at Webster’s WGFP 940.

WGFP’s new antenna.

November brought some contract work for NECRAT (You do know we do contract work, right? More information is coming)
We installed one of many new AM on FM translators, this one for WVNE.

WVNE’s new 101.5 (W268CQ) translator on Asnebumskit Hill in Paxton.

Plus thanks to our good friend Vic Michaels, we got into WGAO 88.3 at Dean College.

WGAO’s tech racks.

In the first week of January, I went to Springfield to pick up a couple of Springfield Fire Alarm boxes that were being sold off, and did a quick round trip to see the new translators for 104.5 //1490 WSPR
and 100.1 //1250 WACM.

100.1 on the 1490 tower, even though it simulcasts 1270. The tower on the island!

Then comes this past weekend, where I took a leisurely 8 hour drive to visit all the new FM translators and LPFMs I could do in one day.

Starting with the two new LPFMs in Essex County, WHAV-LP and WGUA-LP

WHAV-LP on the WXRV tower in Haverhill

Plus those got us a couple of good new views of the new WXRV Aux/IBOC antennas.

WXRV’s new aux antennas.

And some new AM on FM translators like 95.1 in Lowell.

WLLH’s soon to be former primary with the 95.1 translator mounted to it.

102.1 in Framingham

The 102.1 on the 650 (Formerly 1200, 1060) tower in Framingham.

And 101.3 in Milford, complete with sunset tour from our friend Doug!

101.3’s new transmitter racks in Milford.

And the round trip was an excuse to finally photograph a number of the WXRV boosters. We got antenna pictures of 3 of the 5 boosters.

So let’s say you were driving down a country road in Herkimer County, NY, and you come across a giant TV antenna on a telephone pole, next to the road, in a field. Strange right? Well it’s not some conspiracy theorists’ dream. It’s an actual analog TV translator.

The W04AE translator near Herkimer NY.

W04AE serves Herkimer as a relay of WTEN out of Albany.

This late summer trip was a good excuse for us to update a rather neat little corner of New York. Not quite Albany, not quite Utica, the stations of the Mohawk Valley serve the “tri-city” area of Johnstown, Gloversville, and Amsterdam. A total of six AMs serve
the area.
Three in Johnstown/Gloversville

WIZR with 102.9 on topWENT with 105.1 on top

and WFNY 1440.

WFNY

WFNY’s translator is not located here, but rather up on a hill north of Gloversville, along with an LPTV (Co-Owned with WFNY), and WNGG 90.9

The West Bush tower with WFNY-CD, W231CF, and WNGG all side mounted.

Amsterdam has two AMs

WVTL with 104.7

and WCSS

WCSS

Amsterdam also has one large TV tower with FM side mounted to it.

WYPX’s tower, serving Albany and this area. WEXT 97.7 is side mounted near the top

Plus one of New York’s newer AM’s, that had a little controversial startup with the FCC rejecting the original license application.

WKAJ 1120 St. Johnsville’s little AM.

This update also includes the Herkimer County Community College station WVHC…

WVHC studio and tower.

And of course, a complete update to the Stewart’s Shops page from a summer of Western New York travel!

This is one of those updates, that I would call NIFTY. I got to see some towers that have long long been on my list to visit, as well as visit some family sites.

But the first visit I did was actually back in March. Doug Kehrig has been a close friend of mine for many years, and we both have been trying to find some time to get together to see the little AM he engineers, WMRC. (See, Doug is a transmitter engineer for WHDH-TV, just like I am for WFXT, so both our schedules are quite busy).
Anywhos, we got a chance to finally merge off work so I could see his station. I have a full 15 photo gallery of the station on the page. (Linked above)

Doug standing next to the WMRC processing gear at the transmitter.

Then this month (April, 2016), was my annual “field trip” to Allentown, PA to the Spring Melt fire convention, which includes a free day for tower gathering. This year, I got two days in.

The first day I got out to Carlisle, PA to see the six radio stations there. See Carlisle is a special place to me. My Aunt Marge (Marjorie Ann Fitzpatrick January 01,1934 – November 12,2011) lived here for all of my life, and had been inviting me to come down for many years. Unfortunately, I was never able to make it down, and she passed in a tragic car accident on November 12th. So this year, I corrected that wrong, and visited her grave, as well as saw her old houses.
Anyways, it gave me a chance to visit all the Carlisle radio stations, including the one at Dickinson College, where she was a professor.

WDCV-FM at Dickinson College

After visiting this historic and beautiful town, I headed south to see the towers of York, Lancaster. (Plus some of the prettiest country you’ll ever see.).

WGAL’s tower site with WROZ on it.

While down there, I had to go to Millersville to see the college station at Millersville University, where family of mine graduated.

WIXQ 91.7 “The Ville” at Millersville U.

After leaving Lancaster, I had a ton of daylight left, and decided to polish off two more sites from my list that I’ve always wanted to visit. The first was just outside of Hanover. The hill where WGTY Gettysburg, and WYCR York-Hanover both site. What a surprise it was to find WYCR’s very old RCA Batwing still mounted up the hill!
Plus across the street was an old AT&T Longlines tower.

The WYCR and WGTY towers off in the distance. WGTY is just left of the cell tower. You can also see the roof of the long lines building!

See the whole Carlisle set here, and the whole Lancaster-York-Hanover set here.

After leaving that area in Pennsylvania, the plan was to go to Elizabethtown to get a picture of 106.7 , licensed to Hershey. I was surprised when I came upon the tower of WWKL 93.5, while taking the back roads up there!

WZCY-FM’s tall tower in Elizabeth town, licensed to Hershey, PA.

On my way back home from Pennsylvania, I decided to polish off a few more sites in the New York City area that I have never been to.
The first is one that I didn’t realize was as close to the highway as it is. The monster signal of WAWZ in Zarepath. Back when I started the website, a gentleman sent me some old pictures of it, with the caption. “I couldn’t find the way up”. Well thanks to Google Earth, I was able to find this easy to get to site.

WAWZ and one of the beautiful mansions that line the road up to the tower.

From there I headed to West Orange, to visit the WNSH 94.7 site, which also is home to WFMU 91.1, as well as the backups for several other NYC Stations, AND one TV station as well, WNYJ-TV.

The West Orange site.

On my way there, I was quite surprised to see a big beefy self supporting tower about a mile and half up the road , I wasn’t expecting. After photographing it in good detail, I learned it is home to a massive NYC TV backup site.

The NYC Backup site for WCBS-TV, WNBC-TV, WPIX-TV, WNYW, and WWOR-TV.

Leaving there, I visited the WWRL 1600 site to update my pictures of there and got a picture (not fantastic but ok) of the new WEPN towers. Along the way, however, I stopped and added another very prominent AM site to my list. The big 570 WMCA/ 820 WNYC site. As an added unexpected bonus, I got a shot of the new One World Trade center behind them.

WMCA/WNYC with the new One WTC tower behind them.

I also corrected one huge omission from my site. This is an important one too. Scott Fybush, of Fybush Media/Fybush.com has documented on his excellent site, this tower with very detailed history. Really he has explained it in much more detail than I could ever do! I am talking, of course, of the Armstrong tower in Alpine, NJ.

A wide shot of the famous and historic Armstrong tower.

The tower is used by two FM broadcasters. WPLJ maintains a Shively backup on the tower, and WFDU has their primary antenna here.

On the way out of here, I stopped by Nyack College to grab a quick photo of WNYK, then stopped in Danbury on my way home.
I had never made it up to the WXCI site. (Sorry Oz!). This time, I walked past the gate up the short hill, and grabbed a few photos of this rather interesting tower.

WXCI’s short tower and big Shively antenna!

I also made one final stop, while in Danbury, to get a shot of the WDBY-FM1 Booster.

So you can see this is quite an update, and I hope you enjoy it.
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